Posted on 07/08/2012 7:07:06 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Pools open to the public were supposed to have chair lifts installed for people with disabilities in time for this summer, but after a wave of protests, the federal order was delayed until January.
Still, some of the country's 300,000 or so pools at hotels, parks and gyms continue to fight the requirement.
Vestavia Hills pool near Birmingham, Ala., is one of thousands of pools that scrambled to get a chair lift installed by May.
At first glance, it looks like a lifeguard chair, only low to the ground. It's meant to help people with disabilities get in and out of the water.
"It goes really, really slow," says Candia Cole, Vestavia's pool supervisor."
May was the second installation deadline set by the U.S. Justice Department as part of a new provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act. But then many owners of the affected pools complained. Each chair lift costs as much as $8,000. And most hotel pools don't have lifeguards to operate them.
The elderly, people with arthritis or someone who is missing a limb could benefit from the chair lift, but Cole says so far no one's asked to use it.
"If it's used or not, you know, it's here, so we got it — ready to go," she says. "Come on down! The water's fine!"
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
We do this to ourselves! The true source is for this is us!
Expect to find that a lot of pools that were in the smaller hotels and vacation places you have gone to will no longer be there. I expect a lot will be filled and cemented over and made into exercise or public areas. A government rule made for the benefit of less than 1% of the public will cause 100% to lose access to public pools.
Nixon gave us the EPA and Title IX.
Don't forget the Earned Income Tax Credit! Proposed by Nixon, signed into law by Ford and increased under every administration since, without exception. A fine piece of pure communist garbage.
And W gave us Judas Roberts.
The Democrats will completely destroy this economy if they get 4 more years.
***
Then they will be able to declare victory, as that is one of their goals. Destruction of our economy is essential to their ultimate goal of replacing our system with a soviet style one.
Ummmm, how about install a ramp after the pool is closed for the season. No moving parts - can’t break down.
in my obervations, I have noticed that most new pools have a zero entry end - which eliminates the need for a chair.
So you allow for Romney to change for the better as well?
Good luck even finding a pool with a diving board these days. Those things were yanked out years ago.
I remember as a child summoning every ounce of courage I had to jump off the high dive into the 14' deep end. Nowadays, most public pools are about 6' deep max and no diving boards to speak of.
Maybe such laws shouldn’t be retroactive, or, ex post facto, but apply to new construction only.
As an example, an older home might have exposed knob and post wiring for electricity. Generally it is OK to maintain the components, from an electrical code perspective but no new home construction may be constructed this way.
“If a person’s physical abilities are limited to the point where they cannot get in and out of a pool without this type of device, they should not be using the pool. All this does is put them at great risk.”
NO. NO. and NO. It ain’t necessarily so. There was a time when I had membership at the Kroc Center in San Diego (an EXCELLENT facility btw, a rec. pool with 5 lanes or so - deepest part about 4 feet. The more ‘serious’ pool — 11 lanes, all deep water 9-12 feet or so. And a therapy pool-this last indoors. Therapy pool about chest high. MANY elderly people used it, along with those of us with aches/pains etc. They had 2 of the chairlifts — one for indoors and the other stationed outdoors at the ‘serious’ pool — it was made good use of by those who needed it. Handicapped people aren’t all the same! Not really easy to haul yourself in and out of pool if you’re missing a leg or an arm — but otherwise they swim quite well and manage — that’s HOW they manage to stay in shape - they are in no danger of drowning any more than the average swimmer. The Kroc center was HUGE and could afford it — I’d be loath to require Motel Six to do it!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NO. NO. and NO. It ain’t necessarily so. There was a time when I had membership at the Kroc Center in San Diego (an EXCELLENT facility btw, a rec. pool with 5 lanes or so - deepest part about 4 feet. The more ‘serious’ pool — 11 lanes, all deep water 9-12 feet or so. And a therapy pool-this last indoors. Therapy pool about chest high. MANY elderly people used it, along with those of us with aches/pains etc. They had 2 of the chairlifts — one for indoors and the other stationed outdoors at the ‘serious’ pool — it was made good use of by those who needed it. Handicapped people aren’t all the same! Not really easy to haul yourself in and out of pool if you’re missing a leg or an arm — but otherwise they swim quite well and manage — that’s HOW they manage to stay in shape - they are in no danger of drowning any more than the average swimmer. The Kroc center was HUGE and could afford it — I’d be loath to require Motel Six to do it!
I understand your point. It sounds like the facility you described (the therapy pool) was specifically designed to acommodate people with varying degrees of physical limitations and/or a significant handicap. When I posted my comment, I was thinking more in terms of the average public pool, staffed by personnel who are not necessarily trained to work with such individuals. I understand that many people with disabilities are capable of handling themselves in such situations. However, I still think the potential for tragedy is very real at a public pool that is not properly equipped, and does not have personnel who are specifically trained to deal with these circumstances.
Not that i’m in favor of these... but how do you know? Have you been watching it the entire time?
Excellent point.
Reagan was dealing with a Democrat Senate and I'm glad he raised the drinking age to 21.
Reagan, for all his mistakes, though, was clearly an ideological conservative.
I don't vote for liberals of either party.
But, I will be very happy to see Republicans gaining seats in Congress and at the state level and having a chance at voting for a conservative nominee like Scott Walker in 2016.
Yes, certainly. Most of the handicapped stickered cars I see at Walmart are driven by lazy assed, fat assed seniors or younger, whose only 'disability' is to stop sitting on their ass and taking exercise. Some of the carts for the 'disableed' I've seen at WM are pitifully abused by 300-400 lb fatasses who won't stop eating. Most of the rest are what I call those afflicted with "designer disabilies" I get tired, my legs hurt, the whole gamut. Yet when they get out to their car, they spryly jaunt to their car after having left the electric car out in the middle of a space. They are disgusting.
Why? I'd think folks would appreciate the warning that the "compact" labeled parking spaces are too small to safely park a larger car or truck.
Now ... the "fuel efficient" parking spaces are just feel-good silliness.
The exogenously obese take the handi spots because they're usually closer to the entry. They get handi tags then drop someone off at the door then go park in a handi spot and listen to the radio or play phone tag while their passenger shops.
MY consolation is that because I have to roll me in this thing further because of these 'disabled', I'm a whole lot healthier and stronger than them and will likely out live them by a few decades. The issues are more complicated than you might imagine. The very elderly who just want to remain self-sufficient as long as possible and not be a burden to society are also effected by these faux disabled.
HA...YOU don’t live in Oregon, do you? Compact is another euphemism for “green” or fuel efficient, and many parking lots have almost all spaces as “compact”...and, I DO NOT NEED a warning on where to park my Ford 150 pick up...
I’m not ragging on legitimately disabled needs. However, there is rampant abuse of the amenities reserved for them. I broke my foot badly in March. Largely bedbound except for a wheel chair. On the times when my daughter would take me to WM, I had to hand-wheel my chair because the electric carts were being used by lazy fat asses. I saw more than one of them blithely saunter up to the carts inside the door of the store to plop their fat ass down in a cart they didn’t really need, getting the last one.
My guess is, really, that fully half of all seniors find some reason to cajole their doctor into giving them the necessary paperwork for them to be able to get a handicapped card for their car. That, coupled with spouses taking advantage of the ‘card’ and taking up a space they’re not entitled to is why all the spaces for parking are usually filled.
I’m older, and my lower extremity circulation is poor. It took nearly 5 months for the break in my foot to heal. Never once did I ask the doctor to give me the excuse for a handicapped card.
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